Tag Archives: writing

October 11, 2023 · 6:00 am

#NaNoPrep: The Heart of the Story #amwriting.

This is the fourth installment of our NaNoWriMo Prep series. (I’ve listed links to the previous posts down below.) We now have an idea of who our characters are. We also know a bit about the world in which our narrative will be set. We know the genre we’re writing in and what the story might be about. Now we’re going to take a closer look at the plot.

WritingCraft_NaNoPrep_101I am the queen of front-loading too much history in my first drafts. Fortunately, my writer’s group has an unerring eye for where the story really begins.

I have to remind myself that the first draft is the thinking draft. It’s where we build worlds and flesh out characters and relationships. It’s also where the story grows as we add to it.

Let’s write a medieval fantasy:

Act 1: the beginning:

Setting: London in the year 1430. The weather is unseasonably cold. A bard is concealed amongst the filth and shadows in a dark, narrow alley. Tam hides from the soldiers of a prince he has unwisely humiliated in a comic song.

Opening plot point: the soldiers surround and capture Tam, hauling him before the angry prince. The trial is brief and painful. Beaten and bloody, Tam is thrown into prison and sentenced to be beheaded at dawn.

That moment of despair is the end of chapter one.

lute-clip-artYou have done some prep work for character creation, so Tam is your friend. You know his backstory, who he is attracted to (men, women, none, or both), how handsome he is, and his personal history. But none of this matters to the reader in the opening pages. The reader only wants to know what will happen next.

You know who Tam will meet in prison, someone who will help him escape. Depending on Tam’s romantic preference, Dagger (an assassin’s professional name) will be male or female and will dislike the bard on sight. Still, Dagger needs Tam’s help to escape as they too are scheduled to die at dawn.

You have decided that the prince is a dark-path warlock. His close friend is a highly placed cardinal who uses his authority to conceal the prince’s nefarious deeds.

Now we will think about Tam and Dagger’s escape, the first pinch point. The information they learn from each other while quarrelling in prison fuels a quest: killing the Warlock Prince. Each will have different reasons for this, but despite their inability to get along, the enemy of my enemy is my friend and all that.

The escape is successful. Now they are on the run and have no idea how to accomplish their mutual goal. They don’t trust each other, but are forced to work together despite their clash of personalities.

And we all know how friction heats things up. Romance or no romance, this interpersonal tension is crucial.

We (the author) know the Warlock Prince must die if Tam and Dagger are to save London, but who will be willing to help them? What roadblocks stand in their way? The people you need to help them past these hurdles will emerge as you write the first draft.

You might have had an idea for the ending and may have written it down. If you did, you have a goal to write to. If not, perhaps the ending is beginning to show itself. Either way, at this point, the middle of the story is a work in progress.

crows-clip art clicker vector dot comTam and Dagger will tell you what events and roadblocks must happen to them between their arrests and the final victory. This knowledge will emerge from your imagination as you write your way through this first draft.

But the opening moment, the scene showing a lowly bard hiding behind a rubbish heap, is the moment in Tam’s life where the story the reader wants to hear starts.

That scene is where this story begins, regardless of how fascinating Tam’s backstory, London’s history, or the Warlock Prince’s backstory was before that day. It is the beginning because this is the point where all the essential characters are in one place and are introduced.

  • The reader meets the villain and sees him in all his power
  • Tam can sink no lower—he has hit bottom and can only go up from there.
  • Dagger is in the same low emotional place, but this mysterious character has an escape plan.

The story kicks into gear at this pinch point because the assassin is at risk on two fronts, which means Tam is, too. Dagger’s original task of killing the prince has failed, so now they must avoid both the prince’s soldiers and the mysterious employer’s goons.

For Dagger, the original commission must be fulfilled despite the fact there will be no payment.  It’s more than merely a matter of pride, but the secret that drives them will slowly emerge as we write the first draft.

Tam agrees to help ensure it happens because he has a conscience and wants to protect the people of London.

Attraction often grows in the most unlikely of places. Will it blossom into romance? It’s London, a city filled with romance and intrigue. But you’re the author, so only you know how their relationship grows as you write their adventure.

What will emerge in bits and pieces over the following 40,000 or more words?

  • We will learn who Dagger’s employer is.
  • We will learn who Dagger really is and how they became an assassin.

dump no infoTam will find this information out as the story progresses and we will learn it as he does. With that knowledge, he will realize his fate is sealed—he’s doomed no matter what. But it fires him with the determination that if he goes down, he will take the Warlock Prince and his corrupt Cardinal, with him.

The backstory behind the song that precipitated Tam’s arrest, the assassin’s employer, and the enraged prince who intends a lingering, painful death for him must come out gradually.

If we dump Tam and Dagger’s history at the beginning, the reader has no reason to go any further. We’ll have wasted words on something that doesn’t advance the plot.

The people who will help our hapless protagonist will enter the story as he needs them. Each person will add information the reader wants, but only when Tam requires it. Some characters who can offer the most help will be held back until the final half of the story.

By the end, the reader will know everything about the relationship between Dagger and the Warlock Prince. With that information, the final pieces of the puzzle will fall into place.

The reader will follow the breadcrumbs of information. That desire to know all the secrets will be the carrot that keeps the reader turning the pages.

And making that trail into a logical story arc is why I do a certain amount of prewriting and outlining.

storyArcLIRF10032021

PREVIOUS POSTS IN THIS SERIES:

#NaNoPrep: creating the characters #amwriting | Life in the Realm of Fantasy (conniejjasperson.com)

#NaNoPrep: The initial setting #amwriting | Life in the Realm of Fantasy (conniejjasperson.com)

#NaNoPrep: What we think the story might be about #amwriting | Life in the Realm of Fantasy (conniejjasperson.com)

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October 9, 2023 · 6:00 am

#NaNoPrep: What we think the story might be about #amwriting

This is the third installment of our NaNoWriMo Prep series. I’ve listed links to the previous posts at the end of this rant. We now have an idea of who our characters are. We also know a bit about the world in which our narrative will be set. We know the genre we’re writing in.

WritingCraft_NaNoPrep_101Now, we’re going to hear what our characters have to say about what their story might be.

Our characters step from our imagination and onto the first page. When we begin writing, we see them as people we are just getting to know. At first, our characters want us to think they’re unselfish. They desperately desire what they believe they deserve. They will evolve as we write because they will tell us their backstory. But we have an idea of their personality and how they might react.

In real life, people are a mix of good and bad at the same time. Some lean more to good, others to bad. Either way, most people have good, logical reasons for their decisions. How they deal with the hurdles you will present to them will show you who they are. By the end of November, you will know them well.

where-madness-lies-miguel-de-cervantesAn important point to remember is that no matter how decent they are, people lie to themselves about their motives. It’s human nature to obscure truths we don’t want to face behind other, more palatable truths. Those secrets will emerge as you write.

So, what is the story about at this early stage? Do you have an idea of the core conflict, the central problem that all the other events lead up to?

Sometimes, we have a banger of a plot, and the book writes itself. Other times, we have brilliant characters but only a vague idea of their conflict.

Consider the beginning: At the outset of any good story, we meet our protagonist and see them in their surroundings. An event occurs (the inciting incident), and the hero is thrown out of his comfort zone and into the situation, which is the core idea of your plot. 

This is the circumstance in which your protagonist finds himself at the story’s beginning. This is where I ask myself several questions.

  • How will the story start?
  • In the first paragraph on page one, what is the hero’s condition (strength, health, emotional state)?
  • What event could possibly entice her out of her comfort zone?
  • What is the core conflict?

If you know what the situation is, write it down:

  • Bleakbourne front Cover medallion and dragon copyIn my most recent book, Bleakbourne on Heath, Leryn the Bard hunts for strange folk tales and new songs (how it starts).
  • He wants to find a wife and have a normal life (what he wants).
  • But he has stopped in Bleakbourne on the river Heath and immediately becomes caught up in Merlin’s troubles (the conflict).
  • Leryn cares about the distinctly different people of Bleakbourne, who become his family. By the midpoint, he is driven to protect Bleakbourne and the people he loves no matter the cost (how far he will go to achieve his goal).

A few sentences detailing your flashes of inspiration will remind you of what you need when you begin writing. You don’t have to go into detail, just jot those ideas down and keep the list handy.

This kind of pre-writing serves an important purpose for novels I intend to begin in November.

I do it so I don’t become desperate and resort to off-the-wall events or killing off characters (ala G.R.R. Martin) just to stir things up.

route recalculatingI’m going off-topic here for a moment. While the death of a character stirs the emotions, it must be a crucial turning point in that story. It must be planned and be the impetus that changes everything. The death of a character must drive the remaining characters to achieve greatness.

Death for the shock value doesn’t help because you run out of characters. Readers don’t like it when you kill off someone they’ve become attached to, and you might wish you had that character later. Nothing says “oops!” more clearly than bringing a dead character back to life (Bobby Ewing).

Yeah, you can pretend the entire last year was all a dream as they did in the TV series Dallas. But I think keeping the characters I’ve invested so much time into creating alive is a lot easier than trying to bring them back from the dead.

But I'm not superstitious, LIRFUnless, of course, you are writing paranormal fantasy. Death and resurrection may be the whole point if that’s the case.

Once I begin work on my November novel, a more detailed outline of my story arc will evolve. As mentioned a gazillion times, I keep my notes in an Excel workbook. It contains maps, calendars, and everything about any novel set in that world, keeping it in one easy-to-find place.

As the writing progresses, the plot evolves and deviates from what I originally planned. It always does because nothing is engraved in stone. The characters themselves will drive the story in a different direction than was first imagined. I will note those changes on the outline and update my list of made-up words. Also, (if needed), I will edit my sketchy maps.

Many writers will fall by the way and never finish their novels, as they forget what they’re writing, don’t know how to go forward, and then lose momentum. I suggest you write those first ideas down when they occur to you, so when you begin writing the novel, you will have these keys to unlock the story.

800px-NotebooksIf your employment isn’t a work-from-home job, using the note-taking app on your cellphone to take notes during business hours will be frowned upon. I suggest keeping a pocket-sized notebook and pencil or pen to write those ideas down as they come to you.

That is an old-school solution but will enable you to discreetly make notes whenever you have an idea that would work well in your story. The best part is that you don’t appear distracted or off-task, and you will have those ideas in November when you need them.

Next up, we’ll look a little deeper into discovering what the core of the story might be.

Previous posts in this series:

#NaNoPrep: creating the characters #amwriting | Life in the Realm of Fantasy (conniejjasperson.com)

#NaNoPrep: The initial setting #amwriting | Life in the Realm of Fantasy (conniejjasperson.com)

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October 4, 2023 · 6:00 am

#NaNoPrep: The initial setting #amwriting

If you are new to NaNoWriMo (or to writing in general), this series of posts is for you. The goal of participating in NaNoWriMo is to write 50,000 words on your novel in the month of November. A successful NaNoWriMo is easier to achieve if we have a preflight checklist (which can be found at the bottom of this post).

WritingCraft_NaNoPrep_101We talked about getting a start on our characters in Monday’s post. Today, we’re going to visualize the place where our proposed novel is set, the place where the story opens.

Where do you see your story taking place? In the real world? A fantasy realm? Space? An alternate dimension? Alternate Earth? Today, we’re focusing on the opening setting.

I write fantasy, and much of my work is set in an invented world. I began creating this world as the storyline for a post-apocalyptic anime-style RPG game for PC (that never went into production).

Fifteen years on, most of what I need to know about this world is canon and can’t be changed. But at the outset in 2007, all I knew was the premise of the conflict: the gods had been at war, and it involved three worlds. I needed to see how that conflict had changed the landscape because a disaster on that scale would dramatically affect the people of three worlds.

In science fiction and other genres, in series that are set in one world/universe, the word canon refers to historic and previously established events and occurrences in that reality. When something is declared impossible in the early narratives, it cannot be possible in later novels without some logical explanation.

plot is the frame upon which the themes of a story are supportedAll worldbuilding must show a world that feels as natural to the reader as their native environment. I used the forests and lowlands of Western Washington State as my template. The entire series evolved out of three paragraphs that answered the following question:

  • The “War of the Gods” broke three worlds – how did that affect their civilizations?

The War of the Gods is central to Neveyah’s religion, a trauma that shapes their lives as much as it does their world. One can never escape the visible scar, the immensity that divides the world in half: the Escarpment. It is the wound where the World of Cascadia was joined to the World of Neveyah.

Once I have a mental image of the visuals of the world I am writing, I ask myself, “Does the environment shape society?”

Since this example is set in a post-apocalyptic world, the characters live in a low-tech agricultural society. Resources are scarce.

  • How can the environment create tension in the narrative?

I want to see that raw, just-born environment when I begin writing. In the case of this world, one fundamental theme binding the narratives together is the balance of nature and how delicate it is.

Here is a quick, easy exercise in worldbuilding, one that will take less than five minutes:

  • Close your eyes and visualize your real-world environment.
  • Then, without looking around, write a word picture of it.

I am sitting on a balcony. My chair is a saucer chair, not easy to get out of but comfortable once I’m in it. Traffic on the street below is noisy, but the sun is shining, and rain is expected to move in over the next few days.

Once you have written a paragraph or two that describes your personal world, you understand how worldbuilding works. You can visualize your characters’ community and write a two-paragraph word picture of that imaginary place.

So—about the storyboard we discussed in Monday’s post. Now is a good time to start if you haven’t already done so. Here is a screenshot of the tabs on my storyboard/stylesheet that has been fifteen years in the making:

tabs of a stylesheet

Your storyboard/stylesheets will be much simpler, just one page to start out with.

If your work is set in an actual location, you should know where to find resources for appropriate slang, urban myths, and other local peculiarities. My co-municipal Liaison, Lee French, reminds us that we don’t have to immerse ourselves immediately. We just want to lay the groundwork for November, to have things handy when we start writing in earnest on November 1st.

Sci-fi writers should bookmark or list sites for any science you may need. If it takes place on a spaceship, you should have a good idea of what the ship looks, sounds, and smells like, a floorplan, and maybe consider what might power it.

Fantasy writers, if your novel is set in a made-up universe/world/town, what is the big-picture of your setting? Is the starting point near a river, forest, an ocean, or a desert? Again, you don’t have to know everything in precise detail, but you should put down some starter notes, because environment determines food and resources that may come into play later.

If you’re writing in the real world as we know it—make good use of Google Earth. Bookmark (or make a list of) the websites that offer accurate information about those places.

If you intend to add sci-fi or fantasy elements, such as zombies, magic, dragons, or future tech to our current world, you’ll want to think about the effect those elements will have on the environment. The presence of large flying predators would limit outdoor activities. Even if your dragons aren’t carnivorous, they are usually depicted as rather birdlike in appearance and habit.

dragonSeagulls are a good example of what could happen. They fly and do their business while on the wing, and sometime find enjoyment in “bombing” windshields.

That sort of package dropping from the sky could make for a startling end to the average family barbecue. Grandma’s potato salad would likely be served indoors so as to not encourage dragonly target practice.

My RPG-based world has creatures that cast certain magic as weapons or defensively. Their presence in the wild makes traveling without guards dangerous. Thus, the environment offers plot opportunities for employment.

sample-of-rough-sketched-mapSome of us (Me! Me!) will make pencil-sketched maps of our fantasy world or the sci-fi setting. I find that maps are excellent brainstorming tools for when I can’t quite jostle a plot loose. It’s a form of doodling, a kind of mind wandering, and helps me find creative solutions to minor obstacles.

But you don’t have to go to all that trouble at one sitting. Just briefly note your ideas for worldbuilding because we will come back to this and flesh out the details later. For now, all you need is the overview of the world on the day your story opens.

Previous in this series:

#NaNoPrep: creating the characters #amwriting | Life in the Realm of Fantasy (conniejjasperson.com)

NaNoPrep-pre-flight-checklist-LIRF09302021

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October 2, 2023 · 6:00 am

#NaNoPrep: creating the characters #amwriting

If you are new to NaNoWriMo, or to writing in general, this post is for you. A successful NaNoWriMo is easier to achieve if we have a preflight checklist (which can be found at the bottom of this post). Today, we will take an hour or so to do some pre-writing, building our main character and their sidekicks.

nano prep namesNo matter how many characters you think are involved, one will stand out. That person will be the protagonist.

Character creation crosses all genres. Even if you are writing a memoir detailing your childhood, you must know who you were in those days. You want the reader to see the events that shaped you, but not through the lens of memory. They must see the events as they unfold.

I have mentioned (a gazillion times) that I use Excel, a spreadsheet program, to outline my projects. But you can use a notebook or anything that works for you. You can do this by drawing columns on paper by hand or using post-it notes on a whiteboard or the wall. Everyone thinks differently, so we all have to find the way that works best for us. I just happen to like working with Excel or Google Sheets.

Some people use a dedicated writer’s program like Scrivener—which I find mind-bogglingly incomprehensible. No matter your method, the characters aren’t fully formed when you begin writing the first chapters. They will evolve as a result of the experiences you write for them, but you want an idea of who they are now.

The storyboard is where I brainstorm characters and plot. When I find myself floundering in the writing process, I can see where I have gone off the rails and into the weeds.

First, we want to get to know who we’re writing about. I always have a reasonably good idea of how my characters look. However, that image can drift as the first draft evolves, and brown eyes are suddenly green (yes, this did happen, but my editor is amazing).

But don’t get too detailed. Readers have their own image of beauty, so don’t force your idea of loveliness on them. General descriptions and the reactions of other characters should convey how they look. Skin tones and hair color, curly or straight, are pretty much all you need.

a storyboard is your friendOnce I know the basic plot, I make a page in my workbook with a bio of each character, a short personnel file. Sometimes, I include images of RPG characters or actors who most physically resemble them and who could play them well—but this is only to cement them in my mind.

The personnel file is laid out this way:

Column A: Character Names. I list the important characters by name and the point where they enter the story.

Column B: About: Their role, a note about that person or place, a brief description of who and what they are.

Column C: The Problem: What is the core conflict?

Column D: What do they want? What does each character desire?

Column E: What will they do to get it? This column usually remains empty until I am well into the first draft, because at this point, I don’t know how far they will go to achieve their desire.

This is an image of a Storyboard Template, created in Google Sheets which is a FREE spreadsheet program. Google Docs is also free and is a perfectly fine word-processing tool if you don’t have the money for MS Office 360 or other programs.

Google Sheets Storyboard Template Screenshot 2017-10-15 07.13.09 cjjaspNames say a lot about characters. If you give a character a name that begins with a hard consonant, the reader will subconsciously see them as more intense than one whose name starts with a soft sound. It’s a little thing, but it is something to consider when conveying personalities.

Also, I’ve said this before, but with the growing popularity of audiobooks, I suggest writing names that are easy to pronounce. It will simplify the process of having your book narrated—but again, that is your choice.

A great story evolves when the antagonist and protagonist are powerful but not omnipotent. Both must have character arcs that show personal growth or an inability to grow. For the antagonist to be realistic, this must be clearly established, so once we know who they are, they should also get a personnel file.

So first, let’s create a main character. The story will grow from her experiences, so she must be someone you want to know.

Our protagonist is Lilly. For this exercise, I chose a flower name, suggesting someone who is kind, a good friend.

Who is this person? Start with the basics: race, ethnicity, age, gender, sexuality, appearance/coloration.

Race: This is a post-apocalyptic world. When the survivors prepared to leave the catacombs, they divided into 50 tribes. They blended the various races and ethnicities as evenly as possible to widen the gene pool. Everyone is of mixed-race heritage, regardless of outward coloring and appearance.

Appearance and coloration: Lilly is tall and physically fit and has straight black hair, brown eyes, and dark coloring.

Ethnicity: She was born into Asgrim’s tribe, which settled in the north.

Age: 27

Gender/sexuality: This is important, as gender and sexuality play a role in my novel. A broad view of gender/sexuality is a fact of life in their culture. Lilly and Kaye are life partners.

My co-municipal liaison, Lee French, suggests you write one sentence to describe them and move on. I’m not good at one-sentence descriptions, so a paragraph is more my style.

I suggest you write what comes to mind, and don’t worry if you can’t think of anything at this stage. Once you begin writing the narrative, the characters will tell you what you need to know.

It sounds hokey, but it’s true.

Characters don’t leap onto the page fully formed. They begin to reveal who they really are as we lay down the first draft, and this is why my narratives rarely keep to the original outline.

One thing that helps when creating a character is identifying the verbs embodied by each individual’s personality. Lilly’s verbs are: fight, defend, create, care. These words tell me how she will react in any given situation.

Also, I try to identify each character’s motivation, the metaphorical “hole” in their life. What pushes them to do the crazy stuff they do? Sometimes, that loss or lack doesn’t emerge until you’re well into writing the first draft.

What we are doing is pre-writing. It helps me to have the characters in place when I begin writing a novel on November 1st. Below is a PNG image of my pre-flight checklist. Feel free to right-click and save as a PNG or .jpeg for your own use!

We have looked at steps one and two. Next up is step three: the world as it is when the story opens.

Previous in this series:

#NaNoPrep: What do I want to write? #nanowrimo | Life in the Realm of Fantasy (conniejjasperson.com)

NaNoPrep-pre-flight-checklist-LIRF09302021

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September 27, 2023 · 6:00 am

#NaNoPrep: What do I want to write? #nanowrimo

Two weeks ago, we talked about discovering our writing style. Some people plot, some write by the seat of their pants, and others are somewhere in the middle. I plot for a while and then find myself winging it. The plot goes in a new direction until I hit a wall, and then I replot until I know what has to happen. And then I let the words fly as they will.

crows-clip art clicker vector dot comEvery year I participate in NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). I sit down and write, and by doing that for two hours every day, I manage to crank out the high points of a story and get my wordcount and the “winners” certificate. A year or so later, I have connected the dots and end up with a coherent first draft that tops out at around 120,000 words.

Three years and six drafts later, it will be publishable at about 90,000 words.

For me, succeeding at getting the bare bones of a novel’s first draft written during the 30 days of November requires a bit of pre-writing—a pre-flight checklist.

I found Excel useful when I first began writing, and I use it to this day to keep my plots and background information organized. But any document or spreadsheet program will work. The aforementioned pre-flight checklist becomes my permanent stylesheet/outline for that novel.

The outline is a visual aid that keeps my stream-of-consciousness writing flowing.

Once I’m done winging it through the story and am in revisions, some scenes will make more sense when placed in a different order than originally planned. At that point, an outline allows me to view the story’s arc from a distance.

I can see where it might be flatlining. Perhaps an event should be cut entirely as it no longer works. (I always save my outtakes in a separate file for later use.)

Over the next few weeks, we’ll talk more about my process.

But first, what are we writing?

The basic premise of any story in any genre can be answered in eight questions.

  1. Author-thoughtsWho are the players?
  2. Who is the POV character?
  3. Where does the story open?
  4. What does the protagonist have to say about their story?
  5. How did they arrive at the point of no return?
  6. What do they want, and what will they do to get it?
  7. What hinders them?
  8. How does the story end? Is there more than one way this could go?

We’re starting with question number one: who are the players?

My stories always begin with the characters. They come to me, sharing some of their story the way strangers on a long bus ride might. They tell me some things about themselves. They give me the surface image they want the world to see. But as strangers always do, when I first meet them, they keep most of their secrets close and don’t reveal all the dirt. These are mysteries that will be pried from them over the course of writing the narrative’s first draft.

That little bit of sharing gives me the jumping-off point. I sit and write one or two paragraphs about them, as if meeting them for a job interview. That little word picture of the face they show the world is all I need to get my story off the ground when the real writing begins.

But before we go any further, I must ask, “What genre are we writing to?” This is important because tropes will guide the reader to see the world I envision.

Most of the time, I write a fantasy of some sort. I love alternate medieval, alternate Arthurian, and other subgenres.

Sometimes, I go nuts and write women’s fiction. I write whatever I’m in the mood to read. The story is the picture, and the genre is the frame. When selecting the frame for a picture, do I lean toward heavily carved and gilded frames, simple polished wood, or sleek polished steel?

The choice of frame depends on the picture and the room in which I intend to hang it. For my story, the frame (genre) will be determined by the reader I intend the book for. Mostly, I write for myself, so my genre is usually fantasy.

lute-clip-artCharacters usually arrive in my imagination as new acquaintances inhabiting a specific environment. That world determines the genre.

Julian Lackland, Billy Ninefingers, and Huw the Bard are alternate medieval novels because the characters live in a low-tech society with elements of feudalism. Waldeyn is an alternate world because I saw it as a mashup of 16th-century Wales, Venice, and Amsterdam with a touch of modern plumbing. I gave women the right to become mercenary knights as a way of escaping the bonds of society.

Also, I changed how religion works in that world. The church is an institution with hard and fast rules and exists to train men and women with the ability to wield magic. So, magic occurs in that world as a component of nature and spawns creatures like dragons, but they aren’t the point of those books.

Magic, dragons, and fairies are aspects of set dressing. They are the tropes readers of specific subgenres of fantasy expect, the backdrop against which the relationships and personal struggles play out.

Knowing your characters, having an idea of their story, and seeing them in their world is a good first step.

Write those thoughts down so you don’t lose them. Keep adding to that list as ideas about that world and those characters come to you.

This is how I start my pre-flight checklist for winging it through NaNoWriMo. Next week we’ll go a little deeper into the process.

Previous posts in this series:

#NaNoPrep: Discovering your writing style #amwriting | Life in the Realm of Fantasy (conniejjasperson.com)

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September 25, 2023 · 6:00 am

Conference Season #amwriting

I love writers’ conferences. I can immerse myself in the craft of writing and not feel like the odd duck. They can be expensive, but conferences help you make connections across both sides of the publishing industry, traditional and indie.

My Writing LifeYou might want to attend a conference but are worried about cost. I have ways to keep your expenses down.

If you are a regular here at Life in the Realm of Fantasy, you may have seen my two-part series on the business side of being an author. If not, and you are interested, I will put the links to those articles at the bottom of this post. In the meantime, here are some pointers for making attending a conference more affordable.

One: Join the association offering the conference because members get reduced conference fees, sometimes by as much as $100.00. Take advantage of the early-bird discount if you can. Members will often have opportunities for remote learning all year long. I belong to three writers’ associations, each offering virtual classes I can access all year.

Two: Small local events. Does your library system offer presentations on the craft of writing by local authors? These small classes will likely be free if it is a public library. If they don’t offer little seminars occasionally, suggest it to them. Perhaps they’ll be willing to ask some local authors to do such an event.

Three: Use the internet. Google “writers’ conferences in my area.” Local ones are great because you can eat food that fits your dietary needs and sleep at home. That way, you only pay for the conference itself.

Vegan_DesertsFour: Did I mention food? If you are planning to attend a large convention or conference where you will need to stay in a hotel, take simple foods that can be prepared without a stove and are filling. As I am vegan, I’m an accomplished hotel-room chef. Most coffee bars don’t offer many plant-based options. If they do, there will likely only be one to choose from, and it may not interest you. While that bias is changing, I still travel prepared.

Conferences work for me as an extension of the self-education process. Most of what I know about the craft of writing, the genres I write in, and the publishing industry as a whole are things I could only learn from other authors.

I gained an extended professional network by joining The Pacific Northwest Writers Association in 2011. Every year since then, I have attended their annual conference. Even during the pandemic in 2020 and 2021, they held a virtual conference, which was an excellent example of what humans are capable of at short notice.

I attend the Science-fiction & Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) Nebula Conference every year. The pandemic also inspired SFWA to move to a hybrid in-person and virtual conference, so my only cost is the conference fee itself. That cost is quite reasonable because I always take advantage of my membership and early bird discounts.

I am not a happy flyer, so a virtual conference is definitely my thing if I can’t drive there. However, since SFWA is a worldwide association of professional science fiction and fantasy authors, their conferences will also be available virtually for the foreseeable future.

I attended the Southwest Washington Writers Conference (SWWC) two weeks ago. This shindig is local enough that I can commute from my home. I was privileged to present a one-hour class on the character arc and layers of depth, Heroes and Villains – Who are they, and why should we care? I had a lot of fun talking to other writers and hearing what they struggle with. In the end, I hope what I had to say helped them through the rough spots.

This last weekend, I was in Seattle, Washington, attending PNWA’s 2023 conference. I expect the ideas and information I encountered will emerge in my posts over the next few months—after I’ve had time to distill it. Each time I’m exposed to a different way of looking at things, my creative thinking style is reshaped.

ICountMyself-FriendsI’m a small fish in a vast ocean. Attending local conferences puts me in contact with other authors and industry professionals, most of whom are successfully pursuing their craft. I meet people I don’t usually come into contact with as they hail from all over Washington State, Oregon, Idaho, and British Columbia.

The connections I make within the writing community often turn into friendships, which are sometimes the most valuable things I bring home from the conference.

Here are the two posts on the Business Side of the Business:

The Business Sequence for Writers, guest post by Ellen King Rice #writerlife | Life in the Realm of Fantasy (conniejjasperson.com)

The Business Side of the Business, part 2: Inventory #writerlife | Life in the Realm of Fantasy (conniejjasperson.com)

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September 20, 2023 · 6:00 am

Frustrations and blessings #amwriting

Microsoft has dispensed with using old traditional “straight” quotes (quotes without any curves or contours) as the default choice. Instead, it now uses curly “smart” quotes. Also, the most recent update changed my settings to Microsoft’s default choice, and I didn’t notice it for several days at least.

MyWritingLife2021Not every program or platform supports curly quotes, so those gurus who claim they are the only quotes you should use are wrong.

So, what is the problem? Why would I say such a thing? Smart quotes mess up the formatting in some files or on web pages. An example of what happens can be found here: Editing: The Problem with Smart Quotes | LinkedIn.

The most upsetting thing is this—I don’t know how many documents I messed up before I caught the problem. I have no clue which projects now sport straight quotes mingled with curly. I’ll have to resolve that document by document, using a global search and replace. It’s not the end of the world, but is inconvenient.

If you’re like me and prefer straight quotes because they’re less hassle, you will want to change the default curly quote setting in your Microsoft Office apps. Here is a link to a webpage that will walk you through the process: How to change ‘smart’ quotes to ‘straight’ quotes in Microsoft Word, Outlook and PowerPoint | Windows Central.

Epic Fails memeAnother frustration, this one of my own devising, is the mess I have deliberately created in a new project. I’d run into a wall with this story last winter, so I set it aside. Then, two weeks ago, I had the bright idea to change the viewpoint and make it present tense.

That change has injected life into the narrative. Unfortunately, it’s created a minor problem that I suspect my editor will chastise me for—verbs that somehow fell through the cracks and didn’t get changed from past tense to present. Went to goes, had to has or have—things I have spent hours on and will spend countless more when it gets out of the first draft stage.

And no matter how I comb for bloopers now, Irene will have her work cut out when she gets this mess.

The positive side of this self-imposed difficulty is the way the plot is unfolding. The words are pouring onto the paper now that my protagonist is telling the story.

One of the blessings I’m grateful for this week is a direct result of the pandemic: the fabulous people who do the shopping and deliver groceries to my door. I have never enjoyed shopping, and as I wend my way through the store, I forget what I intended to buy and bring home things I never knew I wanted. Hooray for the delivery people who bring the groceries I ordered to my door. I like this convenience so much that I even enjoy putting the food away.

Now, if only the laundry would do itself, that would immensely help.

Olympia_Farmers_Market_04We do get out sometimes, though. We have a wonderful farmer’s market in this town. The hubby and I enjoy shopping for some things when they’re in season: locally crafted jams, honey, and mustard. We don’t get down there as often as we’d like, but we always find something delicious when we do. The last time, it was a fabulous lemon raspberry jam that was to die for from a local producer, Johnson Berry Farms.

Another blessing in our life is the number of restaurants in this town. Olympia is friendly to all dietary persuasions. Every restaurant has at least one plant-based option, and so far, they have all been delicious and thoughtfully prepared. Last night, we had dinner at Cynara, near the boardwalk and the Olympia Farmer’s Market.

It’s a fancy restaurant, with a fancy menu and a fancy tab—but an occasional splurge keeps life interesting. The food there is fabulous. Greg had a lamb dish, and I had their cauliflower. Both meals were eye-candy and every bit as delicious to eat as they were to look at.

As I write this, I’m preparing to head north to Seattle for the annual PNWA Writers Conference. I attend every year, and always feel bad about leaving my husband on his own. So, this year, Greg will go with me for some downtime in the hotel. The hotel we’ll be staying at has many amenities for a man hoping for a bit of relaxation; not the least is a decent sports bar serving good food.

chefSeptember is always a month of transition. The summer weather is changing to cooler days, and leaves are turning red and yellow. The days are growing shorter, and the traffic outside our windows during rush hour is a little more frantic.

This is the month when homemade bread and crockpot soups make the house feel cozy. We’re still spending time on the balcony and finding humor in watching the shenanigans of harried commuters as their cars fly by in excess of the speed limit. But soon, the rain will move in and drive us indoors.

Not to worry—we’ll have plenty of opportunities to pass judgment on their driving skills from our window.

That’s it for today. I hope your frustrations are minor, and may your blessings far outweigh them.

Credits and Attributions:

Image: Olympia Farmers Market, Wikipedia contributors, “Olympia, Washington,” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Olympia,_Washington&oldid=1176094163 (accessed September 19, 2023).

 

 

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September 18, 2023 · 6:00 am

Weddings, equipment failures, industry news, and awesome sunrises #amwriting

This last week has been a productive week for writing despite the irritations. Yet, those bumps were quickly ironed out, and no one died.

R2D2ServingTeaSomething we don’t think about when we’re young and healthy is that the equipment disabled people rely on can fail. The first thing that failed this week was his little walker for getting around in indoor spaces—I’ve named it R2D2 since it’s perfect for serving drinks on the space-yacht that is our home.

R2 is ideal for getting around inside restaurants and theaters. Unfortunately, one of the screws holding the bar that keeps it from collapsing while my husband is using it lost the washer and nut, so I spent the weekend making sure the screw stayed where it was supposed to, which was distracting. Fortunately, Amazon carries bolts, nuts, and washers and ships them overnight and it is now repaired.

Then, there was assembling the paperwork for getting our will redone, this time including a durable power of attorney and an advance healthcare directive. When we had our will made twenty years ago, it was a simple thing, merely a list of our assets, rights of survivorship, and on the survivor’s death, dividing what is left equally among our blended family of five children.

This time, we had to fill out a pre-appointment questionnaire that asked questions I felt were intrusive and had no bearing on the disposition of our not-so-vast fortune.

I became a bit testy.

My husband, ever a man of common sense, talked me into a more rational frame of mind. He explained we need to ensure no random claims arise that could hold up the disposition of any $$ and intellectual properties we might leave our children.

FileDocumentSo, we had to supply dates and names of previous marriages and divorces—which, in my case, involved getting copies of three divorce decrees from the county. (I’ve had a life, and while I could have done some things differently, I don’t regret it for a moment.)

My Gramma Ethel (born in 1909) stayed with me when I was going through some hard times, watching my kids while I worked two jobs. My grandmother, bless her, was a cleaning tornado. She threw things like Christmas cards and old legal documents out when she cleaned—without asking first. These things were over and done in her mind, so why keep junk you don’t need? She hated things that took up space and gathered dust.

It was a trivial failing. Every evening, I came home to a clean house, a hot meal, and happy children. She was the best, and I valued her wisdom and unconditional love more than I can say. She still influences me in all the best ways. (Except I don’t clean house as well as she did.)

But back to equipment failures. The next one is slightly hilarious–my husband’s “ejector chair” suddenly failed to eject. Greg is 6’3” and is not overweight. But he’s a big man. Trying to get him out of the chair stuck in the reclined position was complicated and entertaining. I could hardly breathe for laughing.

Just so you know, the chair does not move when it doesn’t have power, or if the controller fails, which is what happened.

He sleeps much of the night in that chair, and it enables him to be more mobile in his daily life. But the people at the store where we purchased it came to our home and fixed it immediately, so Grandpa is back in business.

We attended our nephew’s wedding on Friday—a happy day for the family. It was beautiful, romantic, and everything a wedding should be. It was held in a local venue, a barn converted to host large gatherings. Greg and I are especially close to this nephew, as he spent part of a summer with us when his brother was seriously injured in an off-road vehicle accident, and his parents had to make an emergency trip to Oklahoma.

(Getting R2 folded and stowed in my sister-in-law’s trunk – and out again – is where the loose screw became a bit of a pain. But as I mentioned above, the wedding wasn’t held in Midsomer County, so nobody died.)

But let’s talk about sunrises—oh my goodness. One thing I love about our apartment is the view of the morning sky. Some sunrises are spectacular, and I find a reason to see every sunrise I can. This morning, clouds were moving in, and the eastern horizon was lit with crimson fire—a sight that only lasted briefly. Still, brief though it was, remembering it makes me glad to be alive.

steampunk had holding pen smallBut enough chit-chat about me. Let’s talk about writing. This week, I made headway on a first draft I had set aside a year or so ago because I was stuck at the 30,000-word point. I changed the narrative tense from close third person omniscient to first person present tense for the protagonist and third person present tense for the side characters. That change kickstarted things and the plot is unfolding as it should.

I always have several projects in the works, so when creativity fails in one, I move on to another. I have been making the loose outline for my NaNoWriMo project to finish the second half of a duology.

And finally, Greg and I will be attending the Pacific Northwest Writers Conference in Seattle on Wednesday. I attend this conference every year. I benefit from the presentations as much as the networking. I will talk more about the two conferences of this month next week.

And now for a bit of publishing industry news:

We’re all trying to get our books noticed, and sometimes the blurb on the back of the book isn’t enough, so we turn to other authors who might be willing to give us an endorsement we can print on the cover or use on our Amazon page. For an interesting article on the usefulness (or not) of author endorsements, I recommend ‘A Plague on the Industry’: Book Publishing’s Broken Blurb System (msn.com).

An excellent article on creativity and AI is AI vs human: the publishing industry’s way through the AI revolution (msn.com).

If you haven’t watched “The Other Black Girl,” you might be interested in this article: Hulu thriller ‘The Other Black Girl’ mocks publishing industry: review (msn.com).

Finally, for an article on diversity and equal representation, I heartily recommend Latino Coalition Launched to Boost Latino Representation in the Publishing Industry – Latin Heat.

So, that’s the way the week was at Casa del Jasperson. May the week ahead be filled with all the good things, and may your words flow freely! What follows is an amazing image of sunrise, found on Wikimedia Commons just for you.

Laanemaa_järv_Orkjärve_looduskaitsealal

Sunrise at Lake Laanemaa at Orkjärve Nature Reserve, Estonia

Credits and Attributions:

IMAGE: Sunrise at Lake Laanemaa at Orkjärve Nature Reserve, Estonia.  Wikimedia Commons contributors, “File:Laanemaa järv Orkjärve looduskaitsealal.jpg,” Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Laanemaa_j%C3%A4rv_Orkj%C3%A4rve_looduskaitsealal.jpg&oldid=801967887 (accessed September 17, 2023).

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September 13, 2023 · 6:00 am

#NaNoPrep: Discovering your writing style #amwriting

Are you a ‘pantser’ or a ‘plotter?’ For me, the answer lies somewhere in the middle. I plot, get two paragraphs in, and then find myself winging it, and the plot goes in a new direction. Then I replot and let it fly again.

crows-clip art clicker vector dot comAlso, my first drafts are not written linearly. I write what I am inspired to, skipping the spots I have no clue about. I fill in those places later. Even after completing the first draft, things will change structurally with each rewrite.

But what if you aren’t interested in writing a novel? What if you are a poet or your best skill is the short story?

In thirteen years of participating in NaNoWriMo, I have discovered that there is no one way that fits everyone. You’ve had this idea rolling around your head for a while now for something you’d like to read. You wish your favorite author would write it. In my experience, you must write it yourself, or it will never happen.

Your favorite author can only write so fast. Not only that, but what they’re in the mood to write might not be your wished-for book.

I’ve noticed a trend—most authors don’t live beyond 100 years of age. Unfortunately, dead authors rarely publish new books unless they are ghostwriters.

So, there you go–if you want that book, write it yourself.

My addiction to NaNoWriMo began innocently, as all good habits do: A young writer in the Philippines whom I had met through a gaming website mentioned he planned to do this writing challenge. I had never heard of it.

nano-computer-word-count

November’s Goal

It was a worldwide thing where hundreds of thousands of people began writing a novel on November 1, intending to have it finished by November 30.  The catch was that you couldn’t start until 12:01 a.m. on November 1st; it had to be at least 50,000 words long, but it could be longer. And you had to have it validated by 11:59 p.m. on November 30th to earn the coveted winners’ goodies.

I wasn’t sure I could do this crazy thing. All I had to do was write 1,667 words daily, which I felt I could do. I figured the worst that could happen was that I would fail to have anything to write about.

Fear of failure had never stopped me from ruining my life, so I googled the national website and signed up. I chose the handle dragon_fangirl.

At 6:30 a.m. on November 1, 2010, I looked at my laptop and had no idea what to do. I wrote the first line as if I were telling myself a fairy tale. Inspired by my misspent childhood reading such disparate works as Don Quixote and the heartily misogynistic adventures of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, I wrote:

There was a cabin in the woods.

Author-thoughtsIt wasn’t exactly literary brilliance, but it gave my idea a jumping-off point. I just began telling the story as it fell out of my mind. Surprisingly, I discovered my word count averaged 2,500 to 3,000 words daily. By day fifteen, I knew I would have no trouble getting to 50,000, and by November 21st, I had passed the 50,000-word mark.

At the 68,000-word point, I had completed my rollicking tale of snark and medieval derring-do. It was utterly unpublishable (say that hokey phrase three times!), but I didn’t know that until later.

What I did know was that I had written a complete novel and told the kind of tale I would have sought out at the bookstore.

All it needed was rewriting, editing, revising, rewriting, and putting it in a drawer, never to be seen again.

Julian_Lackland Cover 2019 for BowkersBut I took that incoherent mess apart, and over the next ten years, it became three books: Huw the Bard, Billy Ninefingers, and Julian Lackland.

One rule they tell you at NaNoWriMo is never to delete and don’t self-edit as you go along. This is all strictly stream-of-consciousness, so write how it falls out of your head. That was hard for me, but eventually, I got into the swing of things.

My rules for NaNoWriMo:

  1. Write at least 1,670 words every day. Technically, it’s three more words than the pros suggest, but it gives me a little cushion and takes about 2 hours. I’m not fast at this.
  2. Write daily whether you have an idea worth writing about or not. Write that grocery list if you have nothing else. When stuck, I work on my characters’ personnel files, visualizing them as people I might want to know. Every word counts toward your ultimate goal. We will talk about my approach to writer’s block next week.
  3. NANO CrestIt helps to check in on the national threads each day. Look at your regional threads on the national website to keep in contact with other local writers. You will find out when and where write-ins are scheduled.
  4. Be brave! Attend an in-person write-in or join a virtual write-in at NaNoWriMo on Facebook. The company of other writers keeps you enthused about your project.
  5. Try NOT to self-edit as you go. Just get that story down from beginning to end.
  6. Delete nothing. Passages you want to delete later can be highlighted, and the font turned to red or blue so you can easily separate them later.
  7. Remember, not every story is a novel. If your story ends, draw a line at the bottom of the page and start a new one in the same manuscript. You can always separate them later; that way, you won’t lose track of your total word count.
  8. Update your word count every day. It’s an honor system, but you get little badges for updating every day and achieving specific goals. One badge is for updating your word count more than once in one day. I try to earn all the badges, and most years I do.

In 2015, I took a different path from the usual novel-in-thirty-days approach. I named my project November Tales. I suffered from a bout of pneumonia and worked from my bed for most of the month. Even so, I managed 42 short stories, all fueled by Nyquil and desperation, totaling 107,000 words.

Bleakbourne front Cover medallion and dragon copyIncluded in this mess were ten dreadful poems, along with chapters 7 through 11 of Bleakbourne on Heath.

The following year began the same, this time with a severe case of bronchitis. I named my project November Tales 2016 – 30 Days of Madness and Pot Pies. I started by writing short stories, flash fiction, drabbles, and poems. Within five days, I was writing the first draft of a novel and managed to get 90,000 wonky, misspelled words.

That novel is still in the first draft stage, but I intend to finish it in this year’s NaNo rumble.

If you choose to join this writing free-for-all, go to www.nanowrimo.org and sign up! Pick your name, start your author profile, and look up dragon_fangirl (that’s me). Add me as your writing buddy, and I will be part of your writing posse, cheering you on when you need a morale boost.

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